Junko Tabei: leggenda femminile.

Junko Tabei: female legend.

Junko Tabei, born Sept. 22, 1939, in Miharu, Fukushima, was the fifth of seven children in a modest family scarred by the hardships of World War II. Her father, a printer, struggled to support a large family and instill in it his own values.
At the age of 10, during a school field trip to the Mount Nasu volcanic complex, Junko fell in love with the mountain. However, her family discourages her passion, deeming it unsuitable for a girl and too expensive.
Moving to Tokyo to study at Showa Women's University, Junko feels out of place because of her country accent, but she perseveres. Although social expectations for women were limited, Junko majored in English and American literature, but abandoned the idea of teaching to finance her mountaineering expeditions with odd jobs.

Between 1969 and 1970, Junko and her husband climbed major peaks in Japan and the Alps. In 1970, she became the first woman to reach the summit of Annapurna III at 7555 meters, together with Hiroko Hirakawa. This achievement prompted her to plan an even more daring feat: climbing Everest with an all-female team, the “Japanese Women's Everest Expedition.”

Despite skepticism and prejudice, Junko organizes a team of 15 ordinary women to prepare for five years, but the real challenge is finding sponsors and getting permission from Nepal.
There is no shortage of irony from the press: “They said we would be better off staying home with our children,” Junko recalls. However, they found support from the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper and Nippon Television.
In May 1975, the group arrived in Kathmandu and chose the South Face route, the same route taken by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953. On the way, an avalanche from Nuptse hits Camp 2, burying Junko under a mountain of snow. Despite the difficulties, Junko recovers and, with unwavering determination, continues the climb.

“Technique and skill alone will not get you to the summit; willpower is the most important element,” Junko says. On May 16, 1975, at 8:30 a.m., he reached the south summit of Everest and, four hours later, the summit at 8848 meters.

Her exploits do not stop there; in fact, in June 1992, Junko became the first woman to complete the ascent of the Seven Summits, the highest peaks on seven continents: from Kilimanjaro in Tanzania to Aconcagua in Argentina, from McKinley (now Denali) in Alaska to Elbrus in Russia, and on to Vinson in Antarctica and Puncak Jaya in Indonesia.

Although we have never explicitly talked about women's activism, Junko Tabei, through her climbs has shown that passion and determination can break all barriers and prejudices.

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